MMA Weekly talks to Rogers' trainer Mike Reilly:
Most believe the fight is far from competitive if Emelianenko gets Rogers to the ground. Not surprisingly, Reilly disagrees.
"People don't realize, when he gets on the ground, he gets up," said Reilly. "But if he stays on the ground, he has a lot of tricks and submissions."
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When it comes to the ground wizardry of Fedor, Reilly says Rogers' size will be a major asset in the fight.
"His suplex - nobody has ever seen it in a fight - is insane," he said. You're 10 feet in the air. When he suplexes you, it's for real; you should pack a parachute."
Rogers has promised to pressure Emelianenko like few have done before, and Reilly has taken him to several different gyms for perspective on climbing the mountain, including sessions with the Russian's friend and would-be opponent, Josh Barnett.
MMA fans should all be familiar with Kevin Randleman's famous suplex of Fedor Emelianenko at PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004. For those unfamiliar with it, Cracked.com featured it in their immortal "Top 8 'Oh Shit!' Moments in Mixed Martial Arts":
Fedor Emelianenko is a merciless knockout machine that emerged from the ruins of war torn Stalingrad to avenge the angry dead. Kevin Randleman is a wrestler whose body was kidnapped by science and mostly replaced with horse DNA. After an early takedown by Randleman, Fedor scrambled to his feet and gave Randleman his back. It is stupidly inadequate to say that what followed next was the greatest suplex in the suplexiverse.
Randleman brought Fedor up in a perfect arc, jumped off his feet, and trebuchet'ed the weight of both of them directly on the point of Fedor's head. It was like he was trying to make dinosaurs extinct again. When wheelchair salesmen watch it, their eyeballs turn to dollar signs.
But instead of bravely learning to walk again years later, Fedor swept him, got side control, punched him in the head 18 times, jumped to north-south, and locked in a kimura. All in the span of 45 seconds. For baseball fans, this is like getting your eye knocked out by a fastball, then hitting 16 home runs with one swing.
After the fight, a reporter asked Fedor how he was able to recover from such a devastating throw, and through a translator Fedor explained, "It didn't affect me. I train to fall great distances." Oh, shit.